The subterranean support pillars detonated in a chain of deafening booms, sending plumes of sulfurous fire shooting up through the fracturing flagstones.
"The dais is giving way!" Beta Vance bellowed over the roar of collapsing rock.
King Kaelen did not hesitate. Clad in his blackened steel battle-armor, he scooped Elara into his powerful left arm, his dire-wolf broadsword still gleaming wet in his right hand. With a ferocious burst of sovereign speed, he launched himself across the widening chasm just as the marble platform sheared off, plunging into the smoking abyss below where Lysander’s dying wails were swallowed by flame.
Vance vaulted across the gap immediately behind them, his polished steel plate armor rattling with the impact. In his iron grip, he carried young Maya pressed fi
